Ian, clean-cut with a freshly shaved face and clean suit, stood in front of the red postal box next to the busy streets of Birming City. His hands sifted through the job and residency applications for various S-rank cities. He wasn’t looking for any particular application, but counting down the amount of money he was wasting. With the low odds and each application fee being $5,000, he considered removing some of the applications. While lost in thought, someone on the streets lined up behind him. As the man cleared his throat, Ian stepped aside to think it through.

Out of all the S-rank cities, Matupa was the hardest to get into without connections to the Academy. Ian took out the Matupa Academy application and filled in two names on the blank spaces. Then, he ripped apart two applications to the other S-rank cities and stuffed the remaining applications into the postal box. With the usual processing time, it could take up to six months before he receives any response from the residency boards.

Ian had two interviews lined up for that day, one for a clerical position and one for a teaching position. The previous nine interviews in his hometown ended in failure, but his parents encouraged him to continue. He expanded his search to the closest city to the north of Worchest, Birming City. As someone who had never applied for a job, Ian finally understood the pain they called the job hunt. It was more exasperating than a trip into the otherworld realm.

From the street, Ian walked into a tall white office building, bypassed the cafe on the ground floor and traveled up the elevator to the 12th floor. The receptionist told him to wait with the others in the waiting room. Inside the waiting room area, Ian shifted uncomfortably in his chair. The chairs were comfortable, but his scheduled appointment was thirty minutes late. His feet tapped impatiently as he stared at the other five applicants in the room, they were either reading their notes or on their phones. The waiting room’s television screen broadcasted the local news, but the weather forecast repeated twice within the past thirty minutes and the major headlines scrolled through multiple times from the bottom of the screen.

After another five minutes, the receptionist called Ian and two other applicants into the meeting room. The interview was a repeat of the previous interviews. They all asked about his field of research at Abbin College and his work experience. Ian answered with a bit of flourishment. Aside from exploring the otherworld realm, he researched biological life in the otherworld and worked part time in a diner for the past six years. He was a hard-working and dedicated individual, willing to learn new tasks and skills.

“Mr. Zimmer, to be honest, we feel that you are overqualified for the position in the clerical department,” said one of the interviewers. “With your resume and credentials, you seem more suited in the research field or academia. Is there a reason why you applied for this position?”

The position had decent pay, and Ian could sit in front of the computer all day and work on his research. Even if he wanted to work in academia, they frowned upon seeing Abbin College on the resume.

“I applied because I believe I can be a great asset to your company,” Ian replied, lying through his teeth.

By the end of the interview, Ian left knowing that they weren’t going to hire him. Most companies already knew who they wanted to hire, like the son of a manager or the niece of a secretary. The employment process was nothing more than an illusion of open opportunity. But then again, him going to interviews was just an illusion of trying to find a real job.

On the way down the elevator, the scent of the lincour mint caught his attention. It bewildered him that he could smell a plant in the real world. Spiritual plants could survive in the real world, but lose their spiritual manifestation like the green glow and magical properties. It shouldn’t be possible for Ian to smell their mana. Once on the ground floor, the scent faded. The scent was strongest between the fifth and seventh floor. Ian remained on the elevator, waited for a young couple to enter, and pressed the seventh floor button. The elevator door opened up on the seventh floor lobby area. He sniffed with his nose twitching up and down. The couple backed away toward the back corner of the elevator, away from the strange man. They were relieved when he left the elevator car.

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Ian walked down the corridor, but the scent wasn’t growing any stronger. He took the exit stairwell down to the sixth floor where the scent intensified. Inside an open office with rows of office cubicles, Ian noticed a potted plant. The occupants in the room looked at him strangely.

“Hello, are you looking for someone?” Asked the office worker.

“I’m from the suite next door,” replied Ian. “One of our workers started to sneeze and break out into hives. She’s highly allergic to plants, so I'm checking to see if someone bought something in.”

Ian didn’t smell anything coming into the office, so it must be something someone had brought in recently.

“Oh no! That would be my plant,” a woman cried out as she stood up from her cubicle. “I just bought it from the farmer’s market. Should I take it home?”

“If you don’t mind, can I take it off of your hand,” said Ian. “I’m heading out right now. How much did you pay for this?”

“Just five pounds,” the woman said. She told him about the local market location and agreed to sell the plant.

Ian didn’t have a five-pound note, and no one in the office have any change. He handed her the ten-pound note, but she had to yank the note from his hand. He reminded himself that he made a steal by paying 10-pound for a potential spiritual plant. With the plant in hand, he took it to the cafe area on the ground floor and drew several illustrations into his item creation space. The best he could create was a 45 SP image card of the lincour mint. While he was drawing, some of the cafe customers commented on his illustration, with one offering to buy one from him. Ian saw no point in keeping so many copies, especially when it was already documented into his item creation space.

“Thanks mister,” Ian said as he took ten pounds from the man.

The man took a seat near Ian and ordered a pancake. “Not a problem, your drawings are very detailed and accurate. How did you know that it’s a lincour mint? A lot of people would have just mistaken it as a regular pineapple mint.”

“It’s pretty common in Neuman’s,” said Ian. Although, most of the ones Ian had seen weren't considered a spiritual plant.

“I see, you’re also a ranker,” the man replied. “I haven’t been to Neuman's and any other realms in ages. People say it's more dangerous these days, but it was always risky in my time. You youngsters have more information at your fingertips now, but none of those fancy things existed when I first ventured into those realms."

From that perspective, Ian agreed. He couldn’t imagine what it was like for the earlier explorers, entering an unknown realm without any knowledge of what they were dealing with.

“Have you ever been in the Birming unregulated realm?” Ian suddenly asked.

“Yeah, once, before the Desmond brothers took it over,” said the man. “It’s crazy that with all of our resources, we still have unregulated realms in this country.”

There were many unregulated realms in third world countries, but only seven within the country. They were synonymous with danger and outlaws.

Birming Realm was a D-rank realm with 10 acres of wooded areas. It was taken over by the Desmond crime family in the early nineties. The ORA had attempted raid missions to recover the unregulated realm. However, there was one major problem, the SP restriction. The Desmond brothers maintained the SP level close to the restricted amount. Once the SP amount reached the threshold, the otherworld realm barrier blocked people with high SP from entering. Since then, the ORA simply waited, hoping that a monster raid could destroy the Desmond’s settlements.

“Sir, do you want other illustrations?” Ian asked the man.

“You have more?” He asked. “To be honest. I’m not much of a collector, but there are people who will buy them for a lot more.”

Ian exchanged information with the man, Jay Richardson.

Afterward, he researched unregulated realm. According to the information on the ORA forum, the vicinity around the Birming Realm was marked as a danger zone. There were no fences around the realm, but most people avoided the area entirely. No one wanted to be killed by monsters and or worse, be captured by the crime family members. Despite all the warning, it was Ian’s best option to draw more plants. Ian wasn’t interested in taking down the Desmond crime family. They had done despicable things, but it wasn’t like Ian could do anything to them. Even if he was a ranked C mage, the best he could do was take out one or two members. To take them on was a suicide mission. If anything, Ian simply wanted to draw as many plants as possible.